Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/42

xxiv The animated Thoughts, and lively Images of this Poem, are numerous. None ever painted more to the Life, than our Author, tho' several Grotesque Figures are, now and then, seen in the same Groupe. The most plentiful Season, that gives Birth to the finest Flowers, produces also the rankest Weeds. Ovid has shown in one Line, the brightest Fancy sometimes; and in the next, the poorest Affectation.

Venus makes Court to Adonis,

Et ecce! Opportuna suâ blanditur Populus umbrâ; Et requievit humo; pressitque & gramen & ipsum. Met. B. 10. l. 556.

Phœbus requests Phaeton to desist from his Request.

—Confiliis, non curribus utere nostris.

Cæneus in the Battle of the Centaurs wounds Latreus in several Places.

—Vulnusque in vulnere fecit.

These are some of our Poet's Boyisms. There is another Affectation, call'd by Quintilian, or a witty Folly, which wou'd not have appear'd quite so trifling, had it been less frequent.

Medea